Bill Sherlach, with daughter Maura Lynn Schwartz, arrives with other families of the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre to meet privately on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. His wife, Mary Sherlach, was a school psychologist who was killed during a mass shooting that left 26 people dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP

President Barack Obama walks down the stairs of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, April 8, 2013 with families who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Obama was returning from Hartford, Conn., where he spoke at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Photo: Cliff Owen, AP

President Barack Obama walks down the stairs of Air Force One at...

Mark and Jackie Barden, parents of 7 year-old Daniel, left, walk with Nelba Marquez-Greene, mother of 6 year-old Ana, center, and an unidentified woman from Air Force One to waiting White House vans after landing at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, April 8, 2013, with President Barack Obama and other families who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Obama was returning from Hartford, Conn., where he spoke at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Photo: Cliff Owen, AP

Mark and Jackie Barden, parents of 7 year-old Daniel, left, walk...

Jennifer Hensel, mother of 6 year-old Avielle, right, walks with Ben and Cheyanne Wyatt, parents of 6 year-old Allison, along with other members of families who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., from Air Force One to waiting White House vans after landing with President Barack Obama at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on Monday April 8, 2013. . Obama was returning from Hartford, Conn., where he spoke at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Photo: Cliff Owen, AP

Jennifer Hensel, mother of 6 year-old Avielle, right, walks with...

President Barack Obama prepares to walk down the stairs of Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, April 8, 2013 with families who lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn. Obama was returning from Hartford, Conn., where he spoke at the University of Hartford, near the state capitol where last week the governor signed into law some of the nation's strictest gun control laws. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)
Photo: Cliff Owen, AP

WASHINGTON -- Quietly, some hand in hand, the traumatized family members of eight Newtown shooting victims walked into a combat zone on Capitol Hill Tuesday.

Just as they arrived, the bitter war of words between gun control and gun rights advocates intensified as both sides prepared for a Senate floor showdown.

"Americans deserve a vote on this bill, and we will vote on it," vowed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. At almost the same moment, Texas GOP freshman Sen. Ted Cruz renewed his pledge to filibuster against any gun bill that would "serve as a vehicle for any additional gun restrictions."

A filibuster means it would require 60 votes in the 100-member Senate to take up pending gun legislation, approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure would expand background checks on gun buyers, impose tougher penalties on straw purchasers -- legal buyers who purchase firearms for people who cannot buy them legally -- and increase federal aid for school security.

A filibuster also would block consideration of amendments, including one planned by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., that would limit the size of ammunition magazines and one by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would outlaw military-style assault weapons.

Cruz also slammed proposals for universal background checks because, he said, they would lead to a federal gun registry.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., asked why he had signed on to the group planning to filibuster, would say only, "The bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee with zero bipartisan support, so that's where we are."

A total of 14 conservative Republicans, including Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of Kentucky as well as Cruz and McConnell, pressed forward on the filibuster threat.

Blumenthal spoke to the Newtown families in his office Tuesday morning and emerged, along with Sen. Chris Murphy, to speak with reporters. He said the families were "aghast and angry" at the proposed filibuster.

The families started their day with breakfast with Vice President Joe Biden and then met with the state's two Democratic senators before visiting other lawmakers.

Later, three family members gave a cautious summary of their day on Capitol Hill. They were Mark Barden, father of 7-year-old Daniel; Nicole Hockley, mother of 6-year-old Dylan; and Bill Sherlach, husband of Mary Sherlach, the school psychologist who was one of six adults killed in addition to the 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14.

"We bring a face to this tragedy and a very personal perspective," Barden said.

Asked why the family members were so guarded in their public comments, Sherlach replied that "the situation is very non-political" and they wanted to keep it that way.

"I have been very humbled by the way we have been received," Sherlach said. "We are just private citizens, members of a private club that we never wanted to belong to. We have received a heartfelt reception by everyone we have seen."

Hockley agreed, saying the family members had been received "warmly and openly."

But the political furor continued unabated.

"What is our democracy coming to when we can't have a vote on an issue supported by 92 percent of Americans?" Murphy asked.

Reid asked much the same thing, quoting former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough's comments on his "Morning Joe" television program Tuesday: "Republicans are going to filibuster a 92 percent issue? Is anybody awake in my party?"

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, strongly criticized the threatened filibuster. "How could any senator look at the people of Connecticut or Colorado and say, `I don't have the courage to vote yes or no'?''

There were signs Reid might have the votes to defeat the threatened filibuster. Some Republicans quietly backed away from the filibuster idea Tuesday, fearing the political effects of being cast as obstructionists. Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson said he would prefer a vote to a filibuster, and he was joined by Republicans Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Susan Collins of Maine and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.

Later in the day, Biden gave his own perspective on the talk of a filibuster.

"You've got leading senators of the most august legislative body in the world saying we're not even going to talk about this tragedy that traumatized a nation and caught the attention of an entire world," he said during remarks to law enforcement officers.